Communication Intervention for Young Children with Severe Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Via Telehealth
Parents can learn FCT through live video coaching and their toddlers will still gain new words.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Three toddlers with severe disabilities got FCT at home. Parents, not therapists, ran every session. A BCBA coached the parents through a computer screen. The coach watched live and gave tips through earbuds.
Sessions happened twice a week for about six weeks. The goal was simple: teach the child one new way to ask for things. Choices were reaching, touching a picture, or saying a word.
What they found
Every child learned to ask for toys or snacks on their own. Problem behavior like crying dropped right after the new skill appeared. Parents kept the gains without the coach on screen.
The kids still used the new words or gestures one month later. No family quit the study.
How this fits with other research
Simcoe et al. (2024) later used the same tele-coach idea across an entire state. They showed the model still works when you add hundreds of families.
Shawler et al. (2021) moved the setup to high school. Telehealth BST helped teachers, not parents, get teens to use speech tablets. Together the three studies show tele-coaching works from toddlers to teens.
Eid et al. (2017) looks like a clash: they trained parents in person, not online, and still saw big gains. The difference is delivery style, not results. Both paths work; telehealth just removes the drive.
Why it matters
You can start FCT with families tomorrow even if they live three hours away. Give the parent an earbud, open a video call, and coach in real time. No travel time means more clients served and faster intake. Try it for the next child on your wait-list who can’t come to clinic.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Young children with neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and Rett syndrome often experience severe communication impairments. This study examined the efficacy of parent-implemented communication assessment and intervention with remote coaching via telehealth on the acquisition of early communication skills of three young children with ASD (2) and Rett syndrome (1). Efficacy of the intervention was evaluated using single-case experimental designs. First, functional assessment was used to identify idiosyncratic/potentially communicative responses and contexts for each child. Next, parents implemented functional communication training (FCT). All of the children acquired the targeted communication responses. The findings support the efficacy of telehealth as a service delivery model to coach parents on intervention strategies for their children’s early communication skills.
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2017 · doi:10.1007/s10803-016-3006-z